> I agree with most of that, but we still have to remember no one has ever seen anything actually evolve...
Actually every time an individual animal or human being dies without reproducing, its species evolves in the direction of other individuals that do reproduce. Even within historical times some major changes have taken place (on the Galapagos Islands, for instance) — that is, in selecting among the genes that are already there. We can see that happening . (And how could it not happen?)
Also the breeding of animals by human beings (artificial selection) — which produces some rather dramatic changes — mirrors Darwinian natural selection except that human beings consciously select desirable characteristics (and, once again, use the currently available genes). The changes possible that way, though, are limited to the current gene pool.
So how does evolution go beyond that? Through mutation of the genes themselves. As far as we know, that happens randomly. Natural selection is much slower because it has to rely on these random mutations in the genes themselves (which happen seldom, and most of which are harmful). It’s common sense that helpful mutations — however seldom they occur — would tend to be preserved, though, and lead to modifications over long stretches of time.
Also, if rather than natural selection, God himself were guiding the natural world, what kind of God would that be? In many respects nature is beautiful and interesting, but it’s extremely cruel and unjust, not at all like the gospel preached in the New Testament.
“Also the breeding of animals by human beings (artificial selection) — which produces some rather dramatic changes — mirrors Darwinian natural selection except that human beings consciously select desirable characteristics (and, once again, use the currently available genes). The changes possible that way, though, are limited to the current gene pool.”
The changes are also limited by time. No one has ever used selective breeding over 10 million years to see what is or isn’t possible to bring about by selective breeding.
Freegards